Closed nurseries and kindergartens as well as homes operating with minimum services is the result of today’s strike by the workers of the Santas Casas de Misericórdia, who are demanding to be treated like the rest of the workers in the social sector.
This is the first assessment made to Lusa by Catarina Fachadas, from the Trade, Office and Service Workers’ Union of Portugal (CESP), who is taking part in the workers’ sit-in in front of the Union of Portuguese Misericórdias (UMP) in Lisbon this morning.
Catarina Fachadas explained to Lusa that the strike began at 00:00 today and, all over the country, “there are nurseries and kindergartens closed, as well as ERPIS [Residential Structures for the Elderly] operating on minimum services”, with “many of these homes already operating during the year with a lack of staff”.
Today’s protest is based on the non-payment by the Santas Casas of daily pay and extra pay for working on public holidays, she explained.
The workers are demanding that the institutions comply with the law and “pay what they owe” to their employees, said Catarina Fachadas, pointing out that these employees have gone many years without pay rises beyond the mandatory annual increases in the national minimum wage.
The workers accuse the Santas Casas and the UMP of not complying with the ordinance published just over a year ago.
The law extended the rights of IPSS workers to all employees of the Santas Casas de Misericórdia, putting an end to discrimination between workers in the social sector, who now have the same working conditions.
“The cost of living is rising and the people can’t take it” or “Wages have to go up” are some of the phrases uttered by workers who shout that they “work night and day” in the social sector, where they “earn so little”.